There are concerns that the Federal Reserve may be forced to tighten monetary policy faster than had been forecast.

LONDON — The rout in equity prices hit Europe on Tuesday, with major indexes across the continent taking big losses.

Estimates show the rout wiped as much as $4 trillion from global stock markets.Germany's DAX, France's CAC 40, Britain's FTSE 100, and the broad Euro Stoxx 50 index all fell by more than 3% at the open. By the European close, major indexes on the continent were still down by between 2% and 3%.

The losses sparked panic in Asian markets overnight, which then spread to Europe. The crashes are driven by concerns that US inflation could force the US Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy faster than had been forecast. Fears of easy money being taken off the table are causing some to view stocks as overvalued.

While the European open was messy, things calmed a little as the morning progressed, and stabilised further as the day went on.

Here's the scoreboard at the close:
Investing.com
Speaking about the crash on Tuesday morning, Mike van Dulken, the head of research at Accendo Markets, said:

"Whilst the roots and drivers are sure to be discussed for days, it looks to emanate from a perfect storm of reasons including, but not restricted to, a strong 2017 rally extending into January, low volatility, low interest rates, over-optimism and complacency, over-leverage and financial engineering, all coming to a head as investors react to the possibility of higher/faster interest rates rises with bond yields creeping higher to jeopardise the current market situation."

Market fears reflect the view of Karen Ward, the chief European strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, who told Business Insider in an interview in January that the biggest challenge to the markets was inflation rising more quickly than expected.

"Thoughts will turn towards a much less risk-favourable environment quite quickly," should inflation rise faster than expected, Ward told Business Insider.